Why two pygmy whales washed up within a week on Indian River County beaches, and six more were found on southeastern shores, remains a mystery; one researchers are hard at work to solve.

At this stage of the analysis of the bodies, said Steve McCulloch, manager of the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute in Fort Pierce, "there's no common denominator, no smoking gun. The data is going to take some time to analyze, but so far we haven't seen any signs of trauma, such as a shark attack or entanglement in fishing lines or nets. The animals weren't emaciated, either. So this is going to take some deeper digging."